Where Bill Gates is happy to tell it as it is, there are plenty more who are just as eager to take the public for fools. Threatening imminent global doom in one breath, and claiming that the only solution is windmills and solar panels in the next, a new breed of Robber Baron is driving energy policy in the US, and beyond.

Peter Foster details the latest brand of mercenary, corporate cynicism at work. This time being run by what he calls the ‘Climate Barons’.

Market advocates have always claimed that policy advice from business should be treated with suspicion. The road to economic and political hell is paved with corporate welfare and national champions (SNC-Lavalin anyone?). Communists and the “progressive” left were much more harsh, claiming that since big business sought only monopoly and plutocracy, the state at least required “countervailing” power, if not absolute power. Since command of economic resources was deemed synonymous with political power, some of the greatest businessmen and philanthropists all time — such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt — were reflexively dubbed “Robber Barons.”

A remarkable change has come over the view of the left in recent decades. With the collapse of socialism (in fact, if not in theory), big business was no longer an automatic enemy. Indeed it was to be co-opted as a partner in “social responsibility” and “sustainable development.” Some of the world’s wealthiest business people eagerly sought to start knitting the rope of Global Salvationism.

The bizarro modern counterparts of the Robber Barons might be called the Climate Barons, those billionaires and capitalist foundations that seek to kill the fossil-fuelled industrial age in order to save mankind from manmade environmental catastrophe.

While America’s Koch brothers are ritually condemned as funding “denialism,” a far more substantial group is supporting NGO thuggery and misinformation, promoting lawsuits and other pressure tactics to euthanize fossil fuels. They also seek to hide the huge economic and social costs of the allegedly essential “transition to a low-carbon economy.”

This group includes U.S. billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg and the British hedge-fund billionaires Jeremy Grantham and Chris Hohn. It includes a raft of multi-billion-dollar foundations bearing names such as Rockefeller, Hewlett and Packard.

The Climate Barons present themselves as promoters of “Climate Philanthropy,” but insofar as their promised low-carbon transition involves forcing the adoption of expensive and unreliable energy, they are both responsible for destroying jobs (Alberta being perhaps the most prominent victim), and exacerbating poverty in poor countries. Their activities might more accurately be described as Climate Malanthropy.

Here’s the good news: Bill Gates, the world’s most prominent philanthropist, has broken ranks. Although the Microsoft co-founder still outsources his thinking on catastrophist science, he has acknowledged that intermittent renewables are the last thing to be forced on poor countries. He has also castigated the Climate Barons’ strategy of killing fossil fuels via financial pressure.

During a recent onstage Q&A at Stanford University, when interviewer Arun Majumdar, a “Google Scholar,” suggested breezily that people were “optimistic” that the costs of renewables and battery storage were coming down, Gates got visibly agitated. “That is so disappointing,” he said, tearing into the misplaced priorities of such feeble optimism. While he supported nuclear, he said battery technology was woefully deficient and renewables needed “a miracle.” They certainly weren’t the solution for India or Africa right now.

Gates revealed that he had recently been at a New York conference of financiers backing the fashionable demand of “climate disclosure,” whereby corporations are required to offer up highly unlikely climate-risk scenarios so as to unnecessarily worry investors and increase their cost of capital. Gates claimed that the idea that finance or investor pressure could provide a solution was “madness.” So was, he said, the demonization of electrical utilities. And in this low-carbon transition, he asked, where would steel and plastic come from? What would power the airplanes? Most dramatically, he claimed that those who suggested that the climate problem was easy to solve were a bigger problem than the climate deniers are.

It is intriguing to compare the Gates interview with another video, made around the same time, in which Majumdar also appears. It was touted as a “Giving Pledge Learning Session” designed to boost “Climate Philanthropy.” One especially intriguing aspect was that Gates and his wife founded the Giving Pledge, in the vain hope of convincing people billionaires aren’t evil. This video suggests that some just might be.

The video features hedge-fund billionaire Jeremy Grantham, who has established several climate foundations that spread alarmism and seek to silence deniers. The chair of Grantham’s main climate foundation is Lord Nicholas Stern, author of 2006’s outrageously perverted Stern Review (officially titled: The Economics of Climate Change). Grantham also employs Bob Ward, perhaps the U.K.’s main attack dog when it comes to trying to silence media skepticism. “Everybody needs to be in on this (transition)” said Grantham. Meaning everyone needs to agree with him.

Another Climate Baron making an appearance was Julie Packard, vice-chairman of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which has committed US$1 billion to climate over the past 10 years. And there was Larry Kramer, head of the Hewlett Foundation, which has also devoted massive amounts to the climate-alarm crusade.

Chris Hohn, another British hedge-fund billionaire, asserts in the video that “solar and wind are cheaper than coal.” He might try running that past Gates. Hohn also claimed that there was need for a “massive step up” in climate philanthropy — but we might note that spending is pretty stepped up already. Hohn funds a charity called the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, CIFF.

CIFF oversees a portfolio of multi-year grant commitments worth more than US$800 million. Of that total, almost US$300 million is dedicated to climate change, more than 10 times the amount committed to “child protection.” CIFF is also a big supporter of “carbon disclosure.” It’s hard to see what that has to do with children who are suffering poverty, malnutrition or abuse right now.

CIFF’s website maintains that “A low carbon world will help secure a healthy and prosperous future for children.” Again, Bill Gates — or indeed any objective observer — would mostly disagree.

Now that Bill has seen the light on the “transition,” maybe there’s hope he’ll turn his analytical mind to just how “settled” climate science really is.Business Financial Post

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Please note that the venture capitalists are all in it together promulgating the climate change hoax and fear mongering whilst they profit from it: Bill Gates-led $1 billion energy fund is expanding its portfolio of startups fighting climate change – September 26, 2018.

“It’s not often that the world’s richest people get together, agree on a goal that’s for the public good, and then set about finding ways to achieve it. But that’s what Bill Gates has achieved with Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), which aims to invest $1 billion into radical energy startups capable of drastically cutting global emissions. The fund draws on the resources of billionaires like India’s Mukesh Ambani, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Virgin’s Richard Branson, Alibaba’s Jack Ma, and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son.” https://qz.com/1402301/bill-gatess-1-billion-energy-fund-is-expanding-its-portfolio-of-startups-fighting-climate-change/

One of the many things that bothers me is that whilst the technocrats continue to promote battery storage etc. the fact that rare earth minerals “essential to advanced technology, from smartphones to GPS receivers, but also to wind farms and, above all, electric cars” are mined in Mongolia, China with huge detrimental toxic consequences to land, water, people and animals, all aspects of the environment.

“The concentration of rare earths in the ore is very low, so they must be separated and purified, using hydro-metallurgical techniques and acid baths. China accounts for 97% of global output of these precious substances, with two-thirds produced in Baotou.

“The foul waters of the tailings pond contain all sorts of toxic chemicals, but also radioactive elements such as thorium which, if ingested, cause cancers of the pancreas and lungs, and leukaemia. “Before the factories were built, there were just fields here as far as the eye can see. In the place of this radioactive sludge, there were watermelons, aubergines and tomatoes,” says Li Guirong with a sigh.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/aug/07/china-rare-earth-village-pollution

There are challenges in establishing any new technology to solve emission’s from human activities. EVs, in particular, are useful in limiting ‘local’ pollution in large cities where cars get driven over short distances. The engineers are well aware of the rare earth materials required for mass production of Lithium ion batteries however, this issue can be solved by:

1) constantly developing battery technology to minimise the reliance on certain rare earth materials.
2) Using western technology and knowhow to help developing countries to retrieve rare earth materials in a environmentally sustainable way.
The reality is that whatever we do there is a price to pay but right now, using EVs in cities is better than continuing with ICE cars.

Reblogged this on ajmarciniak and commented:
When the world’s richest entrepreneur says wind and solar will never work, it’s probably time to listen. When we posted this story – Bill Gates Slams Unreliable Wind & Solar: ‘Let’s Quit Jerking Around With Renewables & Batteries’ – a couple of weeks back, listen they did – that post went viral with over 40,000 hits, so far.

Where Bill Gates is happy to tell it as it is, there are plenty more who are just as eager to take the public for fools. Threatening imminent global doom in one breath, and claiming that the only solution is windmills and solar panels in the next, a new breed of Robber Baron is driving energy policy in the US, and beyond.

Peter Foster details the latest brand of mercenary, corporate cynicism at work. This time being run by what he calls the ‘Climate Barons’.

If one is going to make a hero of a grown-up “computer nerd” and is really interested in all aspects of the corruption around energy and many other issues, a more appropriate hero for Australians, and not only Australians, to take notice of, is Julian Assange.

Labor working on their push to secure Federal Government again here in Australia is snuggling up to businesses – that is if they are businesses willing to support their newly found ideological waffling.
Its obvious the Labor Party here in Australia has decided to set aside its origins – its desire to work for the ‘working class’, and the only purpose is to gain Government by stealth. Unless they are completely stupid (not an unknown outcome for them), they cannot keep making all the promises to us the people and to those companies with an axe to grind, and expect this country to survive as an independent Nation with a strong industrial, farming and business backbone if we cannot afford to operate within a modern society, but become weakened into a mass, dependent on other countries to supply our needs, as we try to remember what a First World Nation was like.
Everything they are promising is destined to cost us dearly – financially and socially.
It is impossible to conduct a First World nation on wind and sun, and in a dry country like ours we cannot rely on water to supply energy needs either.
All the trumping from Short-on cannot hide the truth that energy costs are going up and up, and employment is destined to reduce as more companies fail due to the devastating cost of operating a business in Australia and the ruthless cries to shut down businesses that create jobs and a secure energy supply.
They have managed to work the media into a frenzy and the media is so besotted with Labor’s favouring them that they bow to their illogical outbursts.
That the Liberal Federal and State Governments are now appearing to fall under the spell of the deluded cry’s of the ill named ‘renewable energy’ farce is shameful.
Everything termed ‘renewable’ in the energy field is false. All the turbines, solar panels and battery’s they are using are NOT RENEWABLE most have many components that cannot be recycled and the manner in which those that can be recycled is not energy efficient or clean and the cost is high. Even the production of these things is undertaken using NON renewable sources.
The only thing that could be remotely considered ‘renewable’ is actually a Natural phenomena that is not renewable as it is always there, but comes and goes due to forces beyond our control – turbines, battery’s and panels cannot ensure Nature will be doing what they want it to do when its needed.
We can only hope a sudden bolt of lightening strikes the current Government shaking it up and fusing it into a cohesive block of energy, with all coming to accept what is happening can be stopped and it IS possible for this Nation to once again work in cohesion from the top down – all it takes is for those who make the decisions to get a grip and accept the PEOPLE COME FIRST not their ego’s.
One problem that shouts out clearly above everything else is the media has forgotten INDOCTRINATION is not EDUCATION education is ensuring everyone has the right to search out for themselves the truth of things and the media has a duty to offer alternative views without bias.
The sentence from the article ‘“Everybody needs to be in on this (transition)” said Grantham.” shows just how indoctrination is being used to push an ill conceived idea that there is only one truth and everyone who doesn’t accept it are not worth considering.
They only need to be in it IF they decide it is right for them and the future of this earth.
Transition is going on all the time but most of the time we don’t notice it until we’re older and look back and see how things have changed.
Do we want our children to look back and see nothing positive in their past, only hardship and degradation created by the cry’s of those who put themselves above everyone else demanding something that is so outstandingly illogical.
The Worshipping of the sun and wind surely died with ancient civilisations or has something happened to resurrect these gods from their slumber?

To check on actual sun and wind energy in Australia just get the relevant BOM data, import it into MS Excel and then create a pivot table. You need to add the day of the year into the raw database to make the derived graphs more useful. This will allow you to create a multitude of graphs that show the number of ACTUAL days the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining for solar cells. I think there are 12 measuring stations around Australia.
My BOM analysis, as described above for the years 2008,9 and 10 shows, that there can be as many as 5 days in sequence per annum where wind or solar needs to be backed up – not to mention the fact that useful sun energy for solar is only 6 hours per day (on average) in the southern parts of Australia and of course the ‘duty cycle’ of energy from wind turbines is only about 15 – 20% (depending on geographical location).
You can get this information directly from the BOM data per year or averaged over several years.
For anyone interested, I am willing to provide samples of past years of my BOM data analysis some years ago as part of the work towards the ‘Towards Zero Carbon Emissions’ report issued by Melbourne University about a decade ago. At that time there was a lot of emphasis on CST energy generation using ‘salt solution’ storage tanks to provide 24/7 energy at approximately 220 MW per system. However, it seems, that this approach turned out to be too expensive.

Many people don’t realise (and can learn a lot from Germany) is that if the wind strength is reduced by half from the optimal strength, the turbine wattage output is reduced by a factor of 8. Extensive experience with wind turbines has shown that realistically one can expect 1 MW of energy per turbine on an average. Considering the useful life of wind turbines of less than 20 years, this is an extremely costly form of energy not mentioning all the other negative environmentally destructive issues.